[ALL] Overwatch Patch Notes – May 23, 2017

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Seasonal Event: Overwatch Anniversary

We’re raising our glasses to toast the 30 million heroes who have answered the call to join us in Overwatch! From now until June 12, players can collect more than 100 Anniversary-themed rewards, and play three new Arena maps in the Arcade—all in celebration of our first year fighting for the future together. Put on your finest skins and join us for the festivities!

In addition to the new items in the Overwatch Anniversary event, we’re also adding new goodies to our standard loot boxes. Sombra, Orisa, and Tracer are all getting brand new emotes, and Reaper picks up several new unlocks based on the infamous shrug from the recent Uprising comic.

GENERAL

Custom Games and Game Browser

Added new rules sets for 3v3 and 1v1 Elimination modes on the Arena maps

Players can now disable secondary fire and secondary weapons in Custom Games

You can now disable one Symmetra ultimate while leaving the other active

HERO UPDATES

General

Recoil Recovery Aim Compensation can now be disabled for Ana, McCree, and Widowmaker. The option can be found under the “Control” tab in the “Options” menu. Simply select the appropriate hero under the dropdown menu and look for the “Hero” section

Developer Comments: By default, weapon recoil recovery is overruled by downward crosshair movement. This means that downward movement during the weapon’s recoil recovery phase will override the weapon’s natural recoil recovery. This option allows you to remove this functionality, meaning a weapon’s natural recoil recovery movement acts independently from downward crosshair movement. In practice, this will make your crosshair move faster if you aim downward during the recoil recovery window.

Genji

Removed the attack delay from Genji’s wall climbing ability, allowing him to engage with enemies immediately after he finishes climbing

Developer Comments: This is a quality of life change to make wall climbing feel better.

Hanzo

Removed the attack cooldown from Hanzo’s wall climbing ability, allowing him to engage with enemies immediately after he finishes climbing

Storm Bow

Increase charge speed by 10%

Charged arrows now maintain their charge after climbing a wall, provided the button is continuously held

Developer Comments: Decreasing Hanzo’s draw time gives him more overall DPS, while also letting him fully charge an arrow and more quickly return to full movement speed when needed. And, like the change to Genji’s wall climbing, this is a quality of life change that will make climbing feel better.

Orisa

Fusion Driver

Damage reduced by 9%

Protective Barrier

Cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds

Developer Comments: To help Orisa maintain the front line for her team, we’re reducing the cooldown of her Protective Barrier. This change also helps her reposition the barrier more easily when needed. To compensate for this new defensive strength, we’re reducing her Fusion Driver’s damage, as it felt too high.

Reaper

Wraith Form

Ammo is now entirely refilled when Wraith Form is used

Developer Comments: Wraith Form is typically used as an escape ability after firing. This change gives Reaper a fighting chance if an enemy chases him down as he uses it.

Reinhardt

Earthshatter

Effective height has been lowered from 3 meters to 2 meters

The height threshold of objects that Earthshatter can “climb” has been lowered from 3 meters to 2 meters, making Earthshatter less likely to climb tall objects as it moves along the ground.

Developer Comments: Earthshatter tended to climb unexpectedly high, frequently hitting targets that were significantly above the ground. These changes help the ability stay more grounded.

Soldier: 76

Heavy Pulse Rifle

Bullet damage decreased from 20 to 19

Developer Comments: Soldier: 76 is in a much better place lately, but his damage output was making him a must pick, compared to similar roles.

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

Your final blows are now highlighted by a white background in the Kill Feed

Added new Kill Feed icons for environmental kills and a number of abilities

Heroes resurrected by Mercy are now are now highlighted and color-coded in the Kill Feed

Certain types of assists, like McCree’s Flashbang or Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord, now show up in the Kill Feed

New Controller option: Force Keyboard/Mouse User Interface

Developer Comments: When PC players switch from using the Keyboard/Mouse to a game controller, the game’s user interface is dynamically updated to the console/controller version. Additionally, the button layout on many heroes (like Hanzo, Zenyatta, and Mercy) is different on console. In the past, when a player chose to play using a controller and a mouse, the UI would constantly switch, depending on which device was sending information to the game. This new option allows players to set a default user interface if they choose to use a controller along with a keyboard/mouse.

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed an issue that prevented voice lines from being heard during the Play of the Game

Fixed an issue causing shields to display the wrong team color during the Play of the Game

Fixed a bug that caused high resolution screenshot captures to have visual issues

Arcade

Fixed a bug causing the introduction before 1v1 Mystery Duels to be interrupted

[PS4] Fixed a bug that allowed the edge of the skybox to be seen on some Capture the Flag maps

Fixed an issue causing parties to be split between teams when joining a Custom Game as a group

Fixed an audio bug in Elimination games that could cause the end of round music to end abruptly

Fixed a bug in Custom games that caused parties to be evenly split between teams when they joined as a group

A.I.

Fixed a bug that allowed bots to become stuck around the well on Ilios

Custom Game Browser

A scroll bar has been added to the custom games settings window so players can see all changes if they extend below the screen